Saturday, January 21, 2012

Jan 21st, 2012

Got a fair amount done this week.

Started off finishing riveting the leading edge assembly to the main spar. Finally got to nail it down and I won't have to take it off again.

Test fit the fuel line and vent line.



Fabricated and test fit the float arm for the fuel tank. I'm using the resistive sensors. I kind of wish I'd used capacitive now - they're only $60 more, and by all accounts way more accurate, but going by fuel burn and time (especially once you've dialed in the burn rates) will be more than adequate. I have no intention of coming anywhere near empty.





Once I'd finished up with that and was satisfied everything was finished and correct, I did the final proseal session with the left tank. A while back I'd purchased one of the tubes of proseal (looks like a small tube of caulk) so I decided to use it since it was near expiration.

Worked pretty well - it was nice to have enough to do the whole job. The downer is that you have to use it all. It was more than enough to do the baffle plate, ribs, zbars, etc. I *think* one tube would be enough to do all the ribs if you want to do them in one session. The great thing is it is very easy to apply right where you want it.

Proseal session ended up being about a 5 hour deal all told. Did the baffle plate and all the rivets, as well as the Z bars. No pictures other that before and after. Too gooey and had to keep going. I'm pretty happy with it. Of course I haven't tested it for leaks yet.... :)

End results below:





Bolted the tank assembly to the main spar. Time to get ready to rivet the top skins.



Clecoed the inboard skin and doubler into place. Moved the spar (stored in the crate under the wing for the last several months) out of the way so I could get under there to squeeze and buck if I needed to.

Once I got back from work Saturday (added a shelf to our EVA array so we had to bounce a bunch of hosts - ended up losing a disk and had to rebal the array) Becca helped me back rivet the inboard skins. She did a great job. We did all but the tight bits in about an hour.



I finished up the tight bits on the rear spar and the lower rib (too steep an angle to back rivet) with a squeezer and straight bucking. Clecoed up the outboard skin and started on that.



An here's the state as of Saturday evening. About 2/3 done with the top skins.



Hopefully Becca and I can knock these out in an hour or so tomorrow. Once that's done it's on to the aileron and flap mounting points and working on the bottom skins. May try to get Jeff or another of our chapter Tech counselors to give it a once over before I close it up.